Commuting Gear

Prepping for the Work Term:

For my fifth co-op term, I'll be heading off to Ottawa again to work at Lumentum as a Process Engineering Co-op! This time, I've fortunately found an apartment that's a brisk 15min bike ride from work (thank God, no OC Transpo!). With this in mind, I decided it would be good to test out my commuting setup for the coming term, before I actually need it.

On the bike:

Fenders: SKS Raceblade Pro XL

Searching for fenders for my Jamis has been absolute hell. The seat stays/caliper just barely clears 28mm tires, and there's absolutely no room under the calipers for a traditional full fender. Thankfully, I stumbled across these RaceBlade Pro XLs. They are incredibly simple to mount and have a wide range of adjustment. Both front and rear fenders provide excellent coverage. They are made of stiff, rugged plastic and have long flexible mudflaps. However, the parts that contact the frame are designed to fit blade-like aero forks, even the rear fender. This means they're a bit looser on the rear, in addition to losing the mounting point at the brake bridge traditional fenders would have, so I've zip tied them to my rear rack's legs to provide some additional support.

Tires: Pirelli Angel DT Urban Wire Bead (700x28c)

I usually roll with Schwalbe One Folding (28c front, 25c rear), which are reliable and decently quick training tires. However, they're not the most puncture resistant and have zero tread, so I wanted to switch to a more commuter oriented-tire. These were on sale at Full Cycle, so I thought I'd give them a try.

Initial Thoughts:

They're definitely significantly heavier than my old folding tires, and you can feel that when you start from a stop. You'll also notice that heavy, dead feeling when going over bumps or in general handling. However, I would say that the rolling resistance is acceptable, and not drastically worse than the Schwalbes. Grip in my limited testing has been perfectly adequate, and I am confident the treads will help in the wet. The added cushiness of having 28mm tires on both the front and back is noticeable. Otherwise, the tires are fairly sleek looking and have a nice reflective sidewall.

Pedals: Shimano PD-EH500

Very solidly built pedal, feels like quality in your hands. The flat side is a quite small. Clipping in is very easy as the pedal is weighted to rest with the cleat facing upwards, and you can set the release tension very low. However, this does make using the flat harder because it'll almost always flip itself upside down when you take your foot off.

Update:

Ultimately, I decided to switch to flat pedals because the flat side was just too small for my feet.

Pedals: Deity Defttrap

These blue Deftraps are excellent pedals. They're incredibly grippy, sometimes even too grippy. The large platform is incredibly comfortable with any sort of shoe. They feel strongly built and should last a long time with the replaceable pins.

Clipless, flats, or hybrid...?

Carrying cargo:

Panniers: Axiom Seymour Oceanweave 22+

A pair of 11L+ panniers made from recycled fishing net material. They feel reasonably solidly made, especially when they were $80. The mounting system is mediocre (plastic top hooks flex to latch over the rack rails, versus spring loaded jaws on some of my AliExpress RhinoWalk panniers), but they are still very secure. The extra zipped pockets in the rear, lashing points on top, and the ability to cinch them flat when empty are a good bonus.

Update:

One of the bags flew off without me noticing mid-ride, and ended up pretty damaged. I suspect this is because of the poor mounting system: the top hooks have no left/right adjustability, so you can't push them out against the lateral rack tubes and prevent the panniers from sliding back and forth. The strength of these hooks is entirely dependent on the tension set by a screw in each hook, and that screw can loosen over time. Admittedly, this wouldn't have happened if I'd extended the backup tabs on top, but this failure mode isn't even possible with the better designed mounting systems seen on the RhinoWalk or Ortlieb.

And on top of that, the fabric around the top edge of the drawstring closures has started to wear down after just 1 month of daily use. The fabric overall is noticably thinner and flimsier than the Ortlieb.

Panniers: Ortlieb Backroller Classic

Heavy, thick panniers made to last. The rubbery coating is impenetrable to water, and the (tricky, but learnable) packing system works so well, it's airtight. The mounting system is very well designed, with tubing-specific shims to eliminate vibration and a fantastic quick-release system.

Straps: Sea to Summit Stretch-Loc TPU Straps - 20 inch

Having a pair of Voile-type straps is very handy for securing that jacket that's just a little too big for your pannier, or any other irregular cargo (like new handlebars). These Sea to Summit straps are a little stiff and the strap keepers are a little tricky to understand how to use, so I'd prefer Voile straps, but they still work perfectly fine.

Commuting clothing:

Summer Gloves: Castelli Entrata

Really soft fabric, and great padding out of the box. I really like the small thick square just above the wrist. However, I wish it did have little loops to make pulling them off, and the long term durability of the fabric/pads remains to be seen.

Update:

Both gloves have torn at the seams in-between the thumb and pointer fingers. Shame, since they were pretty comfortable.

Fall Gloves: Mechanix The Original Covert

Somtimes, it gets just a bit too windy for fingerless gloves. And when you have a short commute, padding isn't really necessary. These gloves are durable, well made work gloves, enuff said.

Winter Gloves: Mechanix Coldwork Original

A lighter version of my W25 gloves. I think I like the Velcro-closure of these better, and they should still suffice as I likely won't be riding to work when it starts snowing.

Dressing for adverse weather:

Rain: Jacket, pants, boots, gaiters?

Visibility while commuting:

When fall approaches, nights get earlier, so you have to be well lit on the road to be seen by drivers, especially when you live somewhere drivers do not expect to see a cyclist. Good lights are important no matter where you commute, be it a dark country lane or a well-lit city street.

I'm personally of the belief that lights should be flashing, because a steady light might risk going unnoticed by a driver. However, the danger of flashing lights is confusing on blinding a driver, especially when you up the brightness of those lights. Thankfully, many of the lights I've found have a "breathing" mode, which gently cycles between bright and dim light. Buying a headlight with an appropriate (StVZO approved?) hood can be helpful, as the hood will stop light from directly travelling into drivers eyes. As well, angling lights to primarily face the ground is a good idea, as you will still be very visible by the large patches of glowing pavement surrounding your bike.

My light setup, prior to mounting the tail light on the rear of the rack. Note how the rack obscures a good ~25 degrees of light on each side.

Final commuting light setup.

Lighting is primarily focused on tail and front lights. Tail lights help drivers approaching from behind you spot you. Front lights both alert turning/crossing drivers to your presence, and light up the road to help you spot treacherous potholes and debris on unlit roads. If unlit roads are a common part of your ride, I think it's a good idea to have both a "visibility" flashing light, and a steady light pointed at the ground to continuously provide visibility of the road. A flashing light can be disorientating when trying to focus on spotting obstacles.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a very limited selection of side lights. Side visibility is something which I believe is under addressed in cycling, and is particularly useful for when you're stopped at intersections and want crossing cars to see you. Paired with a front and tail light, you have total visibility from all directions. Side lights should be amber/yellow, as a white or red side light could be confusing to drivers. There are sadly very few market options, like the Planet Bike Bottle Blinky (which seems far too weak) and Brightside (which seems to have a flawed mounting system?). Thankfully, the Blackburn Brightside seems to be a solid choice.

One gripe I have with needing so many lights is that, now with a front, rear, and 2 side lights, I may have 4 devices to charge (not even considering the bike computer!). I'm not sure what would be a good solution, but maybe an industry standard waterproof plug on each light wired up to a main battery, similar to the dynamo system on the Canyon ECLIPS? Or maybe magnetic charger compatibility?

Another way to boost your visibility is to add reflectiveness/lighting to moving parts of your bike. Salzmann sells spoke reflectors which don't look too bad, and will be very distinctive when your wheels rotate. As well, you can get pedals with lights in them like the Redshift Arclight series, or Look Vision pedals (yay, more stuff to charge...). I am personally not big on reflectives, etc. as I feel they detract too much from the look of my bike, but your priorities may differ.

The final part of visibility is how you dress. Dress in visible colors, or even go for reflectives. I personally bemoan the popularity of monotone or muted color styles, be it in fashion or car paintjobs. Try some color on! Belt-style safety vests, like the one made by Salzmann, are a good compromise if you want to wear your normal stylish clothes while adding a highly visible layer that won't trap in sweat.

High Viz Vest: Salzmann Reflective Cross Belt Vest

I chose a belt-style vest because they don't trap in sweat, and are nicer looking and more discrete than a safety vest. The reflective bits are made from 3M ScotchLite, so they certainly work.

Side Lights: Blackburn Grid

Good bright yellow side lights which mount to the fork via rubber bands. The COB LEDs of the upgraded version are very evenly lit and provide total side visibility. Comes with a 2-in-1 charging cable, which is USB-C!

Tail Lights: Cateye ViZ 450

The brightest tail light I've ever seen, and probably very overkill. Some of the flash/dazzle modes are so bright they'd be unsafe outside of daytime use. Otherwise, well built light with good side vsibility. Unfortunately, it does use Micro USB. The stock mount is only good for seat posts, and requires the whole mount to be removed to remove the light for charging. Attached via 3D-printed PETG-CF mount (Printables link) to the vertical 19mm mounts on my Axiom Streamliner rack.

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